Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-08-11
A PAuPER COLONY.
An Educational and Charitable Experimens
OF Exceptional Interest.

of Exceptional Interest.
At Banstead, in Surrey, there is being
worked out an experiment in the edu-
cation and bringing up of pauper chill
dren which is of exceptional interest
An attempt is being made to combine
effective control with the home advan-
tages. On the highlands near the
downs there are erected twenty-thres
houses, each standing in its own ground,
| together with schools. hospitals, .
church, and the necessary administers
| tive buildings. on the twenty-seven
| acres which form the little town. A
street runs throughout the length Of
| the site, and the houses and other
buildings are arranged on each
side in a roomy, tasteful manner. Ten
| of these houses are set apart for boys
and the remaining thirteen for the girls.
Over each of the boys houses are =
house-father and house-mother, who
are married. The father follows some
trade or occupation which is of use to
the village and its occupants. One is
a carpenter, another is q tailor, while
the others respectively follow their
callings as smith, plumber. shoemaker.
baker, gardener, and bandmaster. Over
each of the girls houses is a house
mother. Each of the boys houses is
occupied by thirty-eight boys. and each
of the girls houses by twenty-four
girls. The house-mother performs the
duties of the home in her own particu-
lar way. Every week she sends to the
store and obtains her weeks supply of
groceries. She cooks for her children
at her own fire, and is assisted by them.
She does part of the washing for her
large family. The children wash the
floors, clean the dishes, sweep out the
rooms, and perform the other house.
hold duties under her direction. On
the ground floor is the kitchen, gen.
eral room, lavatory and the house.
mothers room. Upstairs are the bed
rooms. The children sleep in two rooms,
and each has separate bed. The
good old rule of 'early to bed and
early to rise" is strictly followed.
When the children are out of school
they are not made to sit on forms
against wall with their arms folded
and their toes turned out, staring into
vacancy, as used to be the case, but
they are turned out into the house
grounds, to scamper and play at their
own games, and to shout and be boys
and girls like other children. The
house-fathers cut toys for their boys.
repair their playthings, and assist them
in their little enterprises, just as a
real father does for his own boys.
Some of the children have animals
which they have purchased with the
boarded pennies they receive at chance
times, and they are encouraged to tend
them well and are given facilities for
keeping them. Others of them have
fenced off their little gardens, where
they grow hardy ANIMALS and shrubs.
The home life is necessarily not so free
as that enjoyed by children in more
fortunate circumstances, but there can
be no doubt that the main character
istics of it are there.
The education of these children is
undertaken in a most praiseworthy
spirit. The schools are examined every
year by the inspectors of the educa-
ton department, and have secured sat
isfactOry reports as to the standard of
anu lllc u CHo
teaching. The greater part of the
clothes are made on the site, and tho
whole of the bread baked there. Tho
washing also is done in the village
laundry or in the houses. 1t is practi-
cally a self-contained hamlet, with its
own roads, sewers, and sewage farm
within its own borders. AS the chill
dren get up in years they are told of
to assist the skilled fathers and mothers
at their trades. During the three years
ended 1884, one hundred and thirty OF
the children were placed in situations
as apprentices or at service, and COM
menced an independent life on their
own account. Of the ffty-nine boys
some went as hairdressers and pages,
and the others were divided over eleven
other trades. Of the seventy-one girls,
sixty-nine went as servants, one as a
hairdresser, and one as a dressmaker.
AS far as the managers have been able
to trace them in their subsequent life,
they have conducted themselves with
credit to their training. -Lo'sdoz' 7ele-
graph.